Michael A. Ventrella conducted a fairly extensive interview with me, which is now available on his site.

On this date in 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to step on another celestial body (see the photo), a few hours after the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module landed on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin followed him out the door and onto the regolith, and they stayed a few hours.

Three and a half years later, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, aboard Apollo 17, became the last men (to date) to walk on the Moon. It’s been nearly 44 years since people have been more than 300 miles from the surface of the Earth. It’s time….

Data point: CNN’s latest poll says “In a four-way matchup between [Democrat Hillary] Clinton, [Republican Donald] Trump, [Libertarian Gary] Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Clinton carries 42%, Trump 37%, Johnson 13% and Stein 5%.” [See this article.]

Data point: The Washington Post reports that “Both candidates remain highly unpopular — the two most unpopular in the history of Post-ABC polling. By about 2 to 1 (64 percent to 31 percent), Americans view Trump unfavorably. Clinton’s numbers are not quite as negative — 42 percent favorable and 54 percent unfavorable. Half of all registered voters say they have strongly unfavorable views of Trump, while 47 percent say they have strongly unfavorable views of Clinton — the highest ever in a Post-ABC poll for her.” [See this article.]

Data point: The Commission on Presidential Debate says that to be invited to participate in a debate, a candidate must be polling at 15% or more. [See this page.]

Combine those data points, and I’ve decided to urge everyone, if you are included in a political opinion poll, to tell the pollster you support Gary Johnson. I’m not asking you to change your vote (if you’ve already decided who you’re supporting, and apparently 80% of the electorate has already made that decision), and I’m not asking you to vote for any candidate. But I think the debates would be fascinating, and the campaign would be much more interesting than the current cesspool we’re wading through, if it did start to look like a three-way race.

While working today, a cardinal landed on my “drying rack” (I’m trying to dry some of the herbs we’re growing in the garden, specifically, at the moment, basil and mint). The drying is not working so well (I’ll try another method), but I got lucky to catch a picture of the bird (actual shot on the left, close-up on the right).

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Electronic editions of Tanith Lee’s Dancing Through the Fire, Tom Purdom’s Romance on Four Worlds, Bud Sparhawk’s Distant Seas, and Allen Steele’s Tales of Time and Space are all now available. For the full details, see the press release on the Fantastic Books site.

If you can get through the first few paragraphs’ attempts at humor, “What About Bill?” by Nina Burleigh is an interesting discussion of what a President Hillary Clinton would do with a First Spouse who also happens to be a retired President.

Apparently, that advanced copy of the book that showed up a week ago was not a fluke! A box of author’s copies just arrived, so there are now multiple copies of the book here. I guess it’s real!